Game of Thrones is back after the longest off-season ever, and Episode 1 of Season 7
sets the stage for the conflicts ahead.
Arya is at the Twins, wearing the face of Walder Frey – who she killed last season.
It’s not clear exactly how the magic of the Faceless Men works, but by wearing Walder’s
face, Arya takes his appearance and voice and everything, and she uses this disguise
to gather the Freys at a feast.
She talks of the Red Wedding, when the Freys killed Arya’s mother and brother and others.
And then, with poisoned wine, Arya kills the Freys, sparing only the women.
This revenge was a long time coming, and Arya’s clearly pleased with her work – but is this
really justice?
The main people behind the Red Wedding – Walder and Tywin and Roose, and Lothar and Black
Walder – they’re already dead.
Were all these Freys really guilty, and deserving of death?
There’s a similar thing in the books where Catelyn is resurrected as Lady Stoneheart,
who mercilessly kills all the Freys she can find – but it’s not really clear if the
people she kills are all guilty – she even tries to hang Brienne and Pod.
So Stoneheart makes us question whether violent vengeance is right.
And similarly, Arya’s killing is questioned when she runs into Ed Sheeran and his Lannister
mates.
This is a humanising scene where a bunch of nameless redshirt soldiers show that they,
too, have personalities and families and dreams.
They are Lannister soldiers, they’ve probably done bad things – but Arya realises they
still deserve to live.
Maybe the same was true of some of these Freys.
Arya’s arc has made her a ruthless killer, but she’s still capable of mercy and humanity
– and that’s one of the themes of this episode – justice and vengeance versus mercy
and compassion.
After the intro, a dark fog roll in, with the Night King and white walkers leading the
army of the dead, which includes a few undead giants.
This giant is missing an eye so some fans think it’s the corpse of Wun Wun who died
at Winterfell.
But Wun Wun lost his right eye – this guy his left eye – so it must be some other
one-eyed giant.
Twelve-foot-tall zombie giants are pretty scary, and in the books, there are also undead
bears and birds and “things in the water”, and “ice spiders”, even rumours of ice
dragons.
Maybe we’ll see some of these this season.
Also, it’s cool to see the darkness brought by the white walkers.
Cause the walkers aren’t just frosty blokes who like the cold and the dark, they bring
the cold and dark, they kinda are the cold and dark, they are winter.
The walkers might be connected to this world’s irregular seasons.
So maybe the seasons will become normal after the walkers are defeated.
If the walkers are defeated.
One their great opponents is Bran, now called the three-eyed raven cause he’s got psychic
powers and shit.
He arrives at the Wall with Meera Reed, and Ed of the Night’s Watch lets them through.
Some people thought that this mark that the Night King made on Bran last season might
let the white walkers pass through or break the Wall when Bran enters, but it looks like
the Wall’s still standing – for now.
At Winterfell, King Jon Snow holds a meeting with the north.
He says they gotta get dragonglass to fight the white walkers – because dragonglass
kills white walkers.
And he sends Tormund and the wildlings to defend Eastwatch – one of the castles on
the Wall.
For centuries, wildings have attacked the Wall – but now, with a common enemy, the
wildlings and the north stand together.
Jon says that all northerners, including children, will join in the war against the walkers.
Robett Glover and Lyanna Mormont argue over whether girls should be allowed to fight,
and it’s decided that children of both sexes will join in the war.
It’s crazy how in a world like Westeros, gender equality can mean conscripting ten-year-old
girls to fight and die against zombie hordes.
Jon and Sansa argue over whether the Umber and Karstark families, whose leaders betrayed
the Starks for Bolton, should be allowed to keep their castles, or be replaced.
Littlefinger enjoys seeing Sansa and Jon divided – but Jon decides to keep the old families,
and accept oaths from their new young rulers.
Alys Karstark has a plot in the books about Jon helping her deal with her uncle, while
Ned Umber is a character invented for the show – cool how he has this cross on his
clothes, though, representing the Umber chains – the older Umbers wore something similar.
Sansa and Jon talk afterwards, and basically, Jon’s a decent ruler, but could benefit
from Sansa’s advice.
Over the last six seasons, she’s learned politics from the best – or, you could say,
from the worst.
Jon mostly learned from his uncle Ned – who is a great bloke, but lost his head cause
he was too dumb – or too merciful maybe – to survive.
The Starks get a letter from Cersei, who demands that they come south and kneel.
There’s a long history of Starks coming south and dying there – Rickard, Brandon,
Lya, Ned, Robb – so it’s smart of Jon and Sansa to stay put.
Cersei is a problem, but it’s the walkers who threaten all.
At the capital, Jaime and Cersei Lannister chatona map.
Cersei talks about how she hates Tyrion – who she believes killed Joffrey – which he didn’t.
And that he killed Tywin – which he did.
In the books, there’s a prophecy that Cersei’s brother will kill her.
Cersei thinks this means Tyrion, but some readers think Jaime – go watch that video
. Cersei also reveals her feelings about her son Tommen, who committed suicide last season.
It was kinda weird how calm and cold Cersei was about Tommen’s death.
Now we learn that she feels that Tommen betrayed her, by going over to the Faith.
You’d think she’d feel grief that her son died alone and confused and afraid – but
Cersei hardens her heart against Tommen.
If this is how she treats her son, just imagine how she’ll treat her enemies.
As Jaime points out, things look bad for the Lannisters – Cersei’s surrounded.
Daenerys is invading from the east, with her allies in Dorne and the Reach.
King Jon’s in the north.
And with the death of Walder Frey, the Lannisters have no allies left.
So Cersei decides to make a new friend – King Euron Greyjoy.
Euron sails in to King’s Landing, with his red eye on the ironborn ships.
In the books, Euron’s ship is called the Silence.
It’s crewed by “mutes and mongrels” , painted red to hide the blood – and when
men see his sails, they pray . In Season 6 of the show, some people felt Euron was kinda
boring.
Just another gruff bearded white bloke who shouts a lot.
But now, Euron’s different – more expressive and colourful and nutty – like a peanut
M&M.
A bit more like the Euron of the books – though not as sorcerous or scary.
Jaime feels insecure that this black-clad Jack Sparrow is hitting on his sister, so
he reminds Euron of some old family beef – the Greyjoy Rebellion.
Bout ten years ago, Balon rebelled against the crown, so the rest of Westeros got together
and put him down.
Which was pretty sweet – a young Robert and Ned and Stannis and Tywin and Barry and
Thoros and Gregor and Jorah and Jaime all fought together against the Greyjoys.
The Greyjoys lost of course, but “What is dead can never die” and now’s Euron back,
offering his hand – both hands – in marriage to Cersei.
She says no, but he says he’ll return with a gift – so what’s he planning?
Cersei did just mention how much she hates Tyrion, and Tyrion has been offered as a gift
to a queen before, so maybe Euron has eyes on the dwarf.
In Oldtown, at the Citadel, Sam’s weighing brains and stacking scrolls and scooping soup
and scrubbing poop.
Game of Thrones Hogwarts is not as fun as he thought it would be.
He came here to learn secrets that would help in the fight against the white walkers, but
no one here seems to believes that they even exist.
Archmaester Ebrose assures him that every other time someone thought the world would
end, it didn’t.
But Sam has seen the threat is real, so he breaks into the restricted section of the
library, just like Harry Potter, to find something to help against the walkers.
This might relate to something that’s happening in the books, when Jaqen H’ghar breaks into
the Citadel – go watch that video . But in the show, Sam gets a book about dragonglass,
the stuff that kills white walkers.
And he learns of huge caves beneath Dragonstone full of obsidian – which’ll be super duper
useful against the white walkers.
For the record, Stannis already told Sam about that dragonglass , but who listens to Stannis,
right?
Later, we find Jorah is at the Citadel, suffering from greyscale.
Dany ordered him to find a cure, remember.
And it might just be that the book Sam found could hold the answer.
This page mentions “dragonglass as a cure” for “illnesses and dise[ase]”.
It mentions “ingestion”.
So maybe eating dragonglass can cure greyscale?
It would be weird if the same stuff that created white walkers – who can make icy zombies
– can save people from greyscale – which makes stone zombies.
There’re lots of different types of zombies in Thrones – maybe they’re all related
somehow.
One other thing – this knife on this page about Valyrian weapons looks just like the
catspaw’s knife, that Littlefinger used to frame Tyrion.
The same knife that Arya wears on a magazine cover.
It’s not clear what the point of this will be – but it sure looks like this dagger
is important.
It’s only Episode 1, and Sam’s already making discoveries.
Back at Winterfell for a moment, Pod gets his ass beat by Brienne, and Tormund wishes
it was him.
Petyr creeps on Sansa, but she swiftly shuts him down.
Littlefinger used to be an amazing schemer with a complex plot in the early story – now,
he mostly hangs around and says snide shit.
He’s gonna have to do something if he’s to survive this season.
We then get a scene with the coolest new squad in the story – Thoros, Beric, and the Hound,
Sandor Clegane.
They stay at a farmhouse, and Sandor has been here before.
In Season 4, the Hound and Arya stayed with a farmer and his daughter here.
Sandor mugged the farmer, said they’d die by winter, but now when he finds them dead,
he shows regret, and pays his respects by burying them.
The act of gravedigging refers to a bit in the books where, after his apparent death,
the Hound becomes a monk and digs graves as penance for his sins – a peaceful end for
the character in the books . In the show, the Hound’s wars are not over, but the point
of the gravedigging seems the same.
Sandor used to be a remorseless killer – remember when he killed that kid Mycah in Season 1?
But now he has some humanity and respect for life.
Back when Sandor hung out with Arya, he was always the brutal one, while she wanted mercy.
Now it’s the other way round – Arya remorselessly slaughters, while the Hound mourns the dead.
How will these guys get along if they meet again?
Sandor Beric and Thoros talk about destiny, and god.
The Hound overcomes his fear of fire and looks into a flame, seeing a vision of the marching
dead by a castle where “the Wall” meets the sea.
So that’s Eastwatch, where Jon sent the wildlings – and in the books, Melisandre
does predict that the dead will attack there.
But Sandor also sees “a mountain” that “Looks like an arrowhead”.
It’s not clear what this means.
The mountain could mean a place like the Fist of the First Men, or the obsidian at Dragonstone
, or a symbolic mountain like the Hound’s brother Gregor, or a zombie giant maybe.
And the arrowhead bit could mean dragonglass arrowheads, maybe?
It’s hard to say.
But one thing is clear – the dead are marching on Eastwatch.
The final scene is something that readers have waited for for decades.
Twenty years ago, the first book came out, and ever since fans have hoped to see Daenerys
arrive at Dragonstone.
Her home, where she was born, where her ancestors the dragonlords lived for centuries – and
the starting point for her campaign to take the Throne.
There is a sweet seat, and Stannis’ banner, and sand is rough and course, and it kinda
makes no sense that the castle is empty.
But the significance of this scene is as the beginning of the end, the start of the final
act in the story of Game of Thrones.
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